Ukraine staged a significant drone assault on the Russian metropolis of Kazan, 1,000km (620 miles) from the frontline, on Saturday, damaging residential buildings and briefly shutting down the airport. A drone smashed right into a high-rise condominium block and broken a skyscraper within the metropolis of greater than 1.3 million however there have been no casualties, native officers stated. Videos posted on Russian social media networks confirmed drones hitting a high-rise constructing and setting off fireballs. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated two drones hit a 37-storey condominium block and that Ukraine had been concentrating on an unspecified industrial facility however that it suffered no injury.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated on Saturday with out particularly mentioning the strike on Kazan: “We will certainly proceed to strike at Russian navy targets with drones and missiles.” Some Kazan residents have been evacuated – Russian authorities didn’t present figures – and all main public occasions within the space have been cancelled as a precaution after the strikes. Russian civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia briefly closed Kazan worldwide airport, one of many nation’s busiest, however reopened it in a while Saturday. Alongside the drones that hit the condominium block, three drones have been shot down and three have been suppressed by air defence methods, the overseas ministry stated. The assault on Kazan – about 800km east of Moscow – got here a day after Russian strikes on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, killed one particular person and wounded 13, and after 5 have been killed by a Ukrainian assault on the Russian border area of Kursk.
Zelenskyy stated on Saturday that he had met CIA director William Burns in Ukraine – a uncommon public disclosure of a gathering between the pair. The Ukrainian president stated he had met Burns on a number of events all through the battle however their conferences had been undisclosed. “Bill Burns paid his final go to to Ukraine as CIA director,” Zelenskyy stated on Telegram, posting a photograph of him shaking palms with Burns in entrance of a state crest of Ukraine. “He and I’ve had many conferences throughout this battle, and I’m grateful for his assist. Usually, such conferences are usually not publicly reported, and all our conferences – in Ukraine, in different European international locations, in America, and in different components of the world – have been held with out official data.” Burns is about to go away the CIA submit as US president-elect Donald Trump brings in his personal candidate.
Russia’s defence ministry stated the military captured a brand new village on Saturday close to the important thing metropolis of Kurakhove in jap Ukraine, the place Russian forces have made main advances in current months. The village of Kostiantynopolske is about 10km south-west of Kurakhove, an industrial city that may be a looming Russian goal.
The Russian embassy in London on Saturday described the UK’s deliberate switch to Ukraine of greater than £2bn ($2.5bn) backed by frozen Russian property as a “fraudulent scheme”. Britain stated in October it will lend Ukraine £2.26bn kilos as a part of a a lot bigger mortgage from the Group of Seven nations backed by frozen Russian central financial institution property to assist purchase weapons and rebuild broken infrastructure. UK defence minister John Healey stated the cash can be solely for Ukraine’s navy and could possibly be used to assist develop drones able to travelling additional than some long-range missiles.
